 NOVELISTS Irvine Welsh and Fay Weldon have joined a strong list of writers, authors and broadcasters to appear at this year’s Henley Literary Festival.
The event, which is supported by the Standard, is the third and will take place over five days in October, a month later than previously.
With its growing popularity and more than 70 events, the festival has also had to be extended from three days.
It will open Thursday, October 1 with a tribute to Sir John Mortimer featuring actor Joss Ackland and climax with an appearance by Sir Steve Redgrave on Monday, October 5.
In-between there will be an array of novelists and historians, a children’s festival and poetry readings.
Among those who will be appearing are Michael Winner, Jeremy Paxman, Sir Max Hastings, Libby Purves, Jenni Murray, Tristram Hunt, Dan Snow, Blake Morrison, Tim Lott, Lionel Shriver, Tony Parsons and Jojo Moyes as well as Welsh, who also appeared at the first festival in 2007.
Festival director Sue Ryan said: “Moving the date of the festival close to autumn publication dates has enabled us to get an extraordinary range of talented writers to come to Henley. I hope that book clubs will be relishing the thought of reading these novels over the summer and having the chance to meet the authors in person — after all, that is the very essence of a literary festival.
“We want schools and children’s groups to feel part of the event. We have set aside Saturday afternoon at the River and Rowing Museum for children’s events and the top-selling author Caroline Lawrence will be appearing on the Friday.”
Carol Thatcher, the daughter or former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, will be talking about her autobiography A Swim-On Part In The Goldfish Bowl and former Henley MP Boris Johnson’s father Stanley will reveal secrets of his family’s life from his book Stanley, I Presume.
The subjects of Iraq, Afghanistan and the state of Britain will be debated by leading foreign correspondents and analysts including Patrick Bishop, Hala Jaber, Peter Kellner, Ian Jack and the BBC’s Gavin Esler. Humour will be provided by Private Eye’s Francis Wheen and husband-and-wife writers Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.
Mrs Ryan said: “We know that our festival-goers like to mix and match their tickets, going to see some events about which they know a lot and others that are a voyage of discovery. We hope that this year we have set some real problems for them in deciding what to go to and what can’t be missed.”
A tradition of the festival continues with actor Simon Williams’ poetry readings on the Hibernia as it makes its way down the Thames.
This year, there will be the added of bonus of hearing works read by the poets themselves as well as Williams and a talented cast.
His award-winning brother Hugo, a writer, will be appearing at the Kenton Theatre on Friday and every evening at Hot Gossip in Friday Street where local poets will perform their work.
The Bell Bookshop is the festival’s book-selling partner.
The box office opens on Monday, August 10 but Friends of the festival can book now — for full details, visit www.henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk
Published on 27 July 2009
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